Ruby Meylan was rolling, and when that happens, Oklahoma State softball is hard to beat.
Though it took the second-seeded Cowgirls a bit to get their offense unhitched, the hits eventually came, and the result was a 7-0 win over No. 7 Utah in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday night at Devon Park.
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“Everyone on that field knows we have a chance to win when she’s on the mound,” said OSU second baseman Karli Godwin, who hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning. “As hard as she works and as good as she’s been, it makes you want to do everything you can for her.
“You’re crazy if you think you’re not gonna win with her there. It makes you want to make the plays even more.”
Meylan took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before surrendering a leadoff single, which was the only hit she allowed. She walked three and struck out three, needing just 92 pitches to navigate the shutout.
But that one hit stuck with her.
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“I threw a ball down the middle, and it gets pieced through the infield,” Meylan said with a laugh. “That’s pitching. If you let it get to you and start to think about it. It’s impossible not to think about it. Everybody does.
“But execution is still the goal. Didn’t execute, the no-hitter didn’t happen. It falls back on me. But it’s still a shutout, so I’ll take it.”
With Meylan mowing down Utes, the Cowgirls kept trying to spark the offense. They stranded five runners on base in the first two innings and had a baserunning error that erased a potential run-scoring situation in the fourth.
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But in the fifth inning, the ball began to find open spaces.
Freshman Jayelle Austin, who reached base all three times she came to the plate, was hit by a pitch to start the inning. After Godwin hit a one-out single, Rosie Davis brought in Austin with a single up the middle.
Lexi McDonald was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Amanda Hasler laced a hard grounder into the left field corner. The ball hit the bottom of the fence and stopped, and the Utah outfielder initially raised her hands to signal that the ball was stuck.
That would have resulted in a two-run double, but when umpires didn’t stop the play, she grabbed the ball and threw it back in as OSU pinch-runner Kaya Booker scored from first and Hasler strolled into third base.
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Oklahoma State starting pitcher Ruby Meylan (66) celebrates a win after a NCAA Big 12 softball tournament game between the Oklahoma State Cowgirls and the Utah Utes at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
Hasler had initially stopped at second, thinking the play was over, but Gajewski continued waving her to third.
“She was celebrating, doing her dance,” Gajewski said with a smile. “She could’ve scored, actually. She would’ve scored if she had just taken off.”
She scored when Madison Hoffman singled in the next at-bat for a 5-0 lead.
In the sixth, Austin walked and Godwin ripped her seventh home run of the year to center field.
In the two pitches before the homer, Godwin had hit hard line drives that were well foul into the bleachers down the left field line.
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“Just the mindset I had about what she was throwing me and having an idea of what she was gonna throw me next helped me stay through that ball and be on time for it,” Godwin said. “I was definitely feeling pretty good going into that last pitch.”
The Cowgirls will face the winner of Thursday’s late game between Arizona and Arizona State in the semifinals, which is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Devon Park.
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball tops Utah behind Ruby Meylan’s one-hitter
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
